Pakistan, Jinnah, 9/11

September 11, 2009

At least for Pakistan what happened on 9/11 sixty one years ago is far more defining than what happened on 9/11 eight years ago. Muhammad Ali Jinnah died on September 11, 1948 barely a year after creating Pakistan and before he could firmly chart a course for the new country that he had envisioned.

Jinnah's tenure of 13 months as the first Governor-General of Pakistan was all too short and all too troubled by his failing health to give the nascent state the kind of robust start it so desperately needed. In many ways Pakistan has still not recovered from the nebulousness that attended its birth.

As the well known historian Ayesha Jalal says in an upcoming documentary on Jinnah that I am making, Pakistan's founder would be "turning in his grave" at the direction that the country took in the intervening decades. There are those who would forcefully argue that had Jinnah managed to leave a more enduring impact on Pakistani society 9/11/2001 would have been very different for the country. Since that is now a matter of speculation, one can only concentrate on what actually happened.

Eight years ago under General Pervez Musharraf's tight reign Pakistan chose to join President George W. Bush's "war on terror". While that "war" goes on without any discernible resolution, it is still relevant to ask what if Jinnah's vision of Pakistan was realized. Pakistan has slid towards much a more serious existential crisis since 2001. It is hard to imagine how Jinnah would have been able to make any sense out of all that happened to the country he founded. I claim no special insights into Jinnah's mind but it seems plausible that he would have anticipated many of the crises that have come to haunt Pakistan.